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The Hair After Death

The Hair After Death image
Parent Issue
Day
18
Month
May
Year
1883
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The extraordinary tact notea in me - iubjointed narrative is now for the first iina published: In the year 18G3 the bodics in the raufts of "the church which then stood m the north side of Carmine streets, ivere removed. In some of the vaults the coffins had boen ranged in rows, as many as ten being placed on tho top of the other. Up to the time that tho removal of the bodies was begun there had not been a burial- if the placing of a body in the vaults can be so termed - undcrnoath the church for seventeen years. It was notsurprising, therefore, that when the men went to work most of the coflins were found decayed, and thatwhere therc had originally been scveral ooffins nothing was found but a mass of rotten wood, rcmnants of bones and now aud then fragmente of bodies that had held together, but had only the bare resemblancc to skeletons of the human body. There were, however, a few cofhns which were found to be in a fair state of preservation, hut, even the majority ,f i.„ ,ii f ..I..,.,. thn slierhtest t Míese ieu lo pieees i m ="r""""" ouch. The work had lasted nearly a .veek when one day a vault was rcachd in whioh every coffin but one had jrumbled Their contents lay in scattered heaps on the top of the casket which had beea the first to be placed in the vault. Strange to say, although the vvorkmen made rough use of their shovels, their coffin remained intact, and when the last shovelful of "rubbish"- as the mon ealled it- had been scraped off the lid there was no indication that the casket was not as strong as the day when it was tenderdly laid, as the friends of the dead ones fondly hoped, never to bc disturbad froni its resting place One of the laborers with a broom swept off the mould and dust of years that covered portions of the lid, and a faint glinting near the center of 11 caught their watehful eyes. Holding a lantern over the coffln one of the men found this to proceed from the píate- a heavy silver one. Bending down and scraping it with a trowel the vvorkman described the ñamo and age of the person who had been buried in the casket. It showcd that the body was that of a boy of twelve years which had lain there upwards of sixteen years. In attempting to lift the coiïïn the lid came off, the worn and rusted screws falling to the ground. The sight tb at met the eyes of the lookers-on they will probably never forget. One of them knelt down on tbe stono Hoor and devoutiy made the sign Jí ,Uvj UiVJOS. -í. 11U uní i ii'i 7t. ín' tivinii -the satín lining and the delicate fringe that bordered it - was yollow and mouldy, but the body of the boy- a handsome boy he must have been - in its white shroud, with a broad wliite silk ribbon about the waist; looked as though it liad but recently been laid in the coflin. The face ivas marble white, the lips wero half parted, as if in a smile, and beneath the partly closed eye-lids eould be seen by the lantern's rays the eyes themselves. The little handswcre'folded acrossthe breast, and most wonderful of all, perhaps, was the hair. It was neatly parted at the sides, and appeared as if it had just been combed, for the dampness of the vaults was upon it, and this dampness scemed like the trace of a wetted brush. The hair feil in long tresses on either side, and had curledand stretched down and along and over the body to the waist, covering it here and there like a thin veil. AU this was seen at a glance. The wonderful appearance of the body remained unchanged for a much less time than it takes to teil it; for, as the men stood as if transtixed to the spot, gazing upon the child, an almost imperceptible motion was discerned about the face. The eyes commenced slowly to sink, the shroud to crumble. and in an instant almost the air had done its work, and the frail shell that had once doubtless been the pet of a household faded into nothinnrneas. When those present (and tbc writer of this sketch was one of them) had regained their composure they stood before an almost empty colfin; for, besides a skeleton that feil to fragmenta when touched, there lay at the bottom of the casket nothing but the glossy curls that had once adorned the lad's head in lifetime, but had continucd to grow probably for years after the day when the grave lirst claimed its own. Most peopleunderstand that does sometimos grow after dealh, but there are perhaps few who know that there is a very cousiderablo growth in at least one-third of the cases where bodies are interred in the usual manner. A story was told bv Oscar Wilde at a dinner party in New York which illustrates this tact. When Gabriel Dante Iíossetti was very young - scarcely more than a boy - said Mr. Wilde, he was deenly in iove with a young girl, and, having a poet's gift, he sang a poet's Iove in numerous sonnets and verses to her. She died young, and by her wish the manuscripts of the poems were placed in a casket and laid under her head, so that even in the last sleep they should be, as they always had been, kept benoath her pillow. Years passed by and ltossetti's fame grew until every line of his composition became precious. and some of those who prized his writings most asked him for copies of the songs that had been buried. Ho had kept no copies, or they had been lost. At all events he could furnish none, and wheu they asked him to rewrite the verses he decWed that he was utterly unable to do so. for pcrmission to have tho original nianuscripts cxhumed. Ho consented after some hesitation, and all the nocessary prelirninaries having been complied with tho grave, which had been sealed for many years, was opened. Then a strange thing was found The caskct containingthe poemshad proved to be of perishable materia1 and its cover had crumbled away. The long tresses of the girl had grown aftcr death and had twined and intertwined unong the leaves of the poet's paper, coiling a.-Hind tho written words of love in a loving embrace long after death had sealed the lips and dimrned the eye that had made response tothat love. There is nothing improbable in the story so far as it relatos to the physical phonomenon. That the hair grows uftnr death is too well establisned a fact to be challenged, and is readily enougli to be understood by any one who will give even a little study to its formation, it being an appendage to the human form, and not strictly speakicg, a part of it. It might indeed be alraost cali a friendly parasite.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News